Our School Day
THE SCHOOL DAY IS AS FOLLOWS:
Doors open at 8.40am. The morning session begins at 8.45 a.m. Registration closes at 8.55am
Morning break for everyone is at 10.30 a.m.
Lunchtime: Classes have a 45 minute lunch and play, this is staggered across the school.
Afternoon session finishes at 3.15 p.m.
A typical week is 32.5 hours long.
Children should not arrive at school unaccompanied before 8.30 am for safeguarding reasons. If you need to bring your child to school earlier than this, we have a wonderful breakfast club, where they can be warm, safe and dry.
If Y5 and Y6 parents want their child to walk home on their own, you must contact the office to complete an appropriate permission form.
We adopt an ‘open door’ policy and your child’s class teacher is usually available at 3.15 p.m. each day, to briefly discuss any concerns, as long as there are no staff meetings. If so, you can arrange a mutually acceptable time at the door.
We would ask, if at all possible, that you try to avoid asking to speak to teachers at the start of the school day as teachers need to be free to greet their class and settle children into their daily routines. So if you need to see your child’s class teacher in the morning, please do call into the office to make an appointment.
Mrs Thorpe aims to be available on the playground before and after school, whenever possible.
If you need to get a message to your child’s class teacher, Mrs Thorpe or the school office will always pass on a message, on your behalf. We also have a 24 hour answerphone and email addresses on this website.
REGISTRATION AND ATTENDANCE.
Registers are taken at the start of morning and afternoon sessions. Any child who is not in class at this time will receive an absent mark. If children then arrive late, they should enter school via the school office, who will record them their arrival as 'late’ . Any absences or non arrivals, which have not been advised by email/telephone, will be followed up with a daily call from our attendance officer.
The school’s registers are checked regularly by Cheshire West's Education Welfare Service to identify patterns of lateness and absence. Any absence not explained is registered as unauthorised. This includes term time holidays. School is legally compulsory for all our students. See our 'Holidays and attendance' section for more advice about fixed penalty notices and legal sanctions, as a result of non-attendance.
WHAT TO BRING?
Everyone is given a sturdy book bag when they start school, which is weatherproof. Please bring it every day, with your book, homework, letters etc. There is plenty of room in this bag. Please don't send big rucksacks, due to lack of space. On your PE day, come to school in your kit. We will notify you of the days this is required.
It can be cold outside; apart from hot summer days, so do always send a good warm waterproof coat. Wear your own; or you can buy a school fleecy coat with luminous strips, via our uniform shop, which is next to the Post Office at Rossmore shops, neat the railway station on Overpool Road..
COLLECTIVE WORSHIP
Children pray every day in class with their teachers. Reflective times are generally known as 'collective worship' but are talked about as 'Prayer and Liturgy' in atholic schools.
Monday is our Gospel Assembly day, when we gather together to listen and reflect on the Gospel message from the previous day's Sunday Mass.
Friday is our special Whole School Celebration Assembly. (Awards are given for individual, class & whole school achievements)
We have many, many opportuntiies to come together for School Masses, Assemblies, Service and Liturgies throughout the year. Please read our Weekly Newsletters to keep up to date with planned events.
ILLNESS & DISABILITY.
In general children who are unwell should be kept at home.
For pupils where there has been any sickness or diarrhoea, they should remain at home for 48 hours. For other infectious illness, further advice is available from school, based on advice from the N.H.S./School Nurse.
It is very important that we are kept informed of any changes of address and/or work/mobile telephone numbers in case we need to make contact with you during the school day if your child is unwell.
If your child is prescribed a course of antibiotics and returns to school, you will need to complete a medication form from the school office. Please contact the school office if you need advice on the dispensing of non-prescribed drugs, e.g. Calpol, cough medicine
Disability is not a reason for non attendance. We will always support anyone with specific disabilities, to enable them to have full access to all school learning and facilities. For example, staff are trained in manual handling issues, as well as some specially trained staff for dealing with conditions such as mental health problems, diabetes, asthma and epilepsy. Other disabilities are catered for, and we work closely with medical practitioners, social workers etc, for the wellbeing of every pupil. Please contact us if you feel the school needs to offer you further support in any way.
BREAK TIMES.
As part of our healthy school ethos, we believe that it is important that children drink water; and we ask parents to send a full drinking bottle of water each day, for their child. The bottle must contain water, not juice, to keep children hydrated. We can refill the bottles if needed. Please send a sensible non breakable commerically produced drinking bottle.
SNACKS
We are trying to encourage healthy eating at school, as part of a balanced diet. We would, therefore, request that you support us and send healthy snacks of only fresh/dried fruit or child-friendly vegetables for children. We respectfully ask that no sweets, chocolate or sticky, sugary snacks are sent in, as snacks. Water bottles are solely for water.
Toast can be pre-ordered for break time snacks. Payment is made via Scopay, our payment app, as we are a cashless school. Please contact the office if you forget your log on, on 0151 329 3524.
Infant children are provided with a FREE mid-afternoon snack of either a fruit or a vegetable (eg an apple, carrot sticks) each day, through the National Fruit for Schools scheme.
Please note; school days can vary. For example, we might have an educational trip; a visiting theatre experience; or an author visiting school. We keep parents informed via text, letters, emails etc. More information about our wider, term by term and year by year curriculum can be found on our 'Curriculum' page. This will help you to help your children to learn, in line with current topics. Thank you.